I work in a startup specialized in energy monitoring. We've been analyzing energy consumption for a few years already and we've realized that the mere installation of a monitoring system helps to rationalize the consumption and companies get a 10-20% savings because of that. Of course investing more money (changing HVAC systems, illumination, etc) leads to obtaining even better results. If a small percentage (10 %) of the consumption was analyzed in such way the reduction in energy consumption would already be huge (not just a few MWh every year), just imagine what would happen if everyone did it.<div>
The cheapest energy is the one that's not used. <br><br><div class="gmail_quote">2012/8/13 Cal. <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:peppecal@gmail.com" target="_blank">peppecal@gmail.com</a>></span><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<p>Yep. We like doing more and more things with the same amount of energy. But fact is we need more. </p>
<p>Saving megawatts won't give us gigawatts. And costly fuel wont push research for renewable energy, but for cheaper fuel.</p>
<p>We can have fuel from oil fields, we can have fuel from sugar; sugar is renewable, good; also contains carbon, bad. It's not about energy efficiency, when nearly every engine on earth is a combustion one.</p>
<p>I'm not saying this is not a problem, just is not as simple as that. </p>
<div class="gmail_quote">Il giorno 13/ago/2012 02:07, "Richard Stallman" <<a href="mailto:rms@gnu.org" target="_blank">rms@gnu.org</a>> ha scritto:<div><div class="h5"><br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
> -- people will arrange<br>
> to use less fuel of whatever kind.<br>
<br>
That is suicidal.<br>
<br>
Fuel is just energy,<br>
<br>
So many mistakes in so few words!<br>
<br>
Fuel to burn is only one kind of energy. As fuel gets expensive,<br>
people invest in other energy sources such as renewables. This is why<br>
it is ok if all kinds of fuel become more expensive.<br>
<br>
Meanwhile, there is tremendous opportunity for doing the same jobs<br>
with less energy. It just takes an investment in energy efficiency.<br>
Amory Lovins has written extensively about how cheap it is to produce<br>
lots of "negawatts" -- savings of energy due to increased efficiency.<br>
As the cost of energy goes up, people will make these investments.<br>
<br>
Of course, government policies can facilitate or impede these changes.<br>
Nonetheless, expensive fuel is an important motivating factor.<br>
<br>
Finally, we may need to stop doing some of the things we now do. The<br>
consequences of global heating will force many people to stop doing<br>
things they now do. It will force many to stop living. Global<br>
heating is damaging food production and swamping low-lying land.<br>
The sacrifices to limit global heating may be painful but they will<br>
be less painful than the consequences of global heating.<br>
<br>
--<br>
Dr Richard Stallman<br>
President, Free Software Foundation<br>
51 Franklin St<br>
Boston MA 02110<br>
USA<br>
<a href="http://www.fsf.org" target="_blank">www.fsf.org</a> <a href="http://www.gnu.org" target="_blank">www.gnu.org</a><br>
Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software.<br>
Use Ekiga or an ordinary phone call<br>
</blockquote></div></div></div>
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